Straw demands release of man with MI5 links from Guantánamo

Wednesday 19 April 2006 19.16 EDT
First published on Wednesday 19 April 2006 19.16 EDT

The British government has formally asked the United States for the release from Guantánamo Bay of a London man who says he was incarcerated after helping MI5 keep track of an alleged Muslim extremist.

The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, has written to his US counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, demanding the release of Bisher al-Rawi, from Kingston-upon-Thames. Mr Rawi has been held by the US at Guantánamo without charge or trial for three years after being arrested in Gambia during a business trip.

The letter from Mr Straw represents a major U-turn for the British government, which had refused to help Mr Rawi, an Iraqi citizen who has been resident in the UK for 17 years.

Mr Rawi took the British government to court last month, claiming he had been helping MI5 to keep track of Abu Qatada, who western intelligence agencies claim provides spiritual support to al-Qaida. Government officials did not deny that Mr Straw's change of heart was to do with Mr Rawi's links with MI5. It is also alleged that British security services passed false information to the US which led to the arrest of Mr Rawi and other men he was travelling with when they arrived in Gambia in 2002.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We have written to Condoleezza Rice asking for his release and repatriation to the UK."

Mr Straw and Ms Rice discussed the British view that Guantánamo should close during the US secretary of state's recent visit to Blackburn and Liverpool.

Mr Rawi's lawyer in the US, Brent Mickum, said: "I see this as a positive development. I'm only left to ask the question what took so long. Did they need the judicial challenge to do the right thing?"